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The Asilomar Institute is dedicated to advancing and promoting information architecture.

How Much Value Do Links Have?

Referers, trackbacks...the link. What is the real value of these for social network analysis? The create networks, connections, but these have only indirect value. A referer is interesting, perhaps good for a bit of ego-stroking, but ultimately it's just a connection. Whether there is something of value at the other end of that connection isn't signified by the connection. Even if we knew where the connection led to (say, someone who often creates similar connections), it's only a stronger predictor of value, not value itself.

Let's be careful we're not mistaking the interesting or curious for usefulness.

Sunday, August 18, 2002 | Permalink | Filed in Hypertext